Here’s a plot for a play: A few friends sip wine in a 9th Ward garden and dream of an alternative theater festival in the Crescent City. Then, unlike the rest of us, they actually go out and do it.

Launched in 2008, the New Orleans Fringe Theater Festival has swiftly emerged as an international destination for performing artists and a showcase for our burgeoning local scene.

The 2010 Fringe, which runs for five days starting Wednesday, will host 60 performing troupes, about half from Louisiana. For the first time, the Fringe will welcome artists from foreign countries, including performers from Chile, Switzerland, Italy, Northern Ireland and Norway.

Although most performances occur at six stages in Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, the festival has also grown to include such mainstream venues as Southern Rep and Le Chat Noir. And the festival, which operates mostly with volunteers and in-kind donations, has also seen its budget skyrocket from a $2,000 seed grant in 2008 to $58,000 this year.

“From the start we knew that there would be creative ways to do this as a community, to cobble together an amazing event without making everything a line item on a budget,” said Kristen Evans, the volunteer who serves as executive director for the Fringe. “We operate on good will, leaps of faith, and a bit of barter.

“It helped that theater people understood what we were doing,” she said. “We modeled our event on successful fringe festivals in Minneapolis, New York City and Edinburgh.”

New Orleans has put its own spin on the models found in those established theater centers.

“We want locals to sit down in our venues and see as much theater as possible, and we’ve staggered events so that a determined person can see almost everything in the course of five days. But we’ve also worked to make the Fringe a community experience that’s bigger than the sum of its shows,” Evans said.

“At the Fringe you’ll stumble into street performers. You might fall in with a costumed parade on St. Claude Avenue. There’s a tent that features free performances and children’s activities. If you hang out in the neighborhood, you’ll also find lots of audience members in cafes and bars and restaurants, discussing the shows that they’ve seen.”

The New Orleans Fringe also celebrates the spontaneity that makes Carnival such a special season. In 2009, for example, the Fringe welcomed a troupe of dancers, singers and fire-breathers who set up a geodesic dome in a neighborhood backyard. Their performances morphed into an all-night bonfire party for theatergoers who flocked to it after hours.

“We think we know the shows that will be the big hits of the festival, but there are always these amazing surprises,” said Emilie Whelan, the 26-year-old production coordinator for the Fringe. This year Whelan helped to assemble a remarkably diverse program, including drama, comedy, musical theater, cabaret, multimedia, dance, circus, sideshow and puppetry.

The venues are equally diverse, ranging from the professional-grade, Black Box theater at NOCCA, to settings that include a decommissioned Catholic church and the float-filled den of a parading Mardi Gras krewe.

Whelan sees an underlying trend amid the diversity of the Fringe.

“For the past 40 years, theater has been moving toward bigger and bigger spectacles, with bigger and bigger budgets,” Whelan said. “The Fringe aims to bring back some of the intimate magic that makes theater so special.”

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The New Orleans Fringe Theater Festival

What: Sixty performing groups from three continents present dance, cabaret, comedy, drama, puppetry and other forms of theater at festival venues centered in Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, and at scattered locations across New Orleans.

When: Wednesday, Nov. 17 through Nov. 21.

Tickets: Tickets are $8 with the one-time purchase of a $3 festival button, and a five-show pass is $30. One ticket is good for any one show. Tickets are available online at nofringe.org before the festival, and during the festival at the venues or at the Free-For-All Tent on the corner of Press and Dauphine streets in Faubourg Marigny.

We found six out of the 60 performances scheduled for the New Orleans Fringe Festival that were especially intriguing. For a complete schedule and a descriptive list of performances, go to nofringe.org. All are $8 unless otherwise noted.

52 Man Pickup, The Skull Club, 1003 N. Spain St. Comedian Desiree Burch brings a one-woman show of sexy, adult storytelling that earned praise from New York magazine, TimeOut NY and other publications. Performances: Wednesday at 9 p.m., Nov. 19 at 11 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.

Bam Bam Boom! Baby Boom! The Maison, 508 Frenchmen St. The Fringe ventures into spoken-word performance for the first time this year with a show that features five New Orleans artists. Performances: Nov. 20 at 7 and 9 p.m. Free.

Home Made Trinity Church, 725 St. Ferdinand St. A pair of dancers from Portland, Ore., explore the complexities of relationships in a show that features some nudity and a soundtrack performed by two live vocalists. Must be 18 or older. Performances: Nov. 19 at 9 p.m., Nov. 20 at 11 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 5 p.m.

The Liar Show The Skull Club, 1003 N. Spain St. Writers from Comedy Central, NPR and the New York Times appear on stage to tell stories in an audience participation game show that earned raves at the Edinburgh Fringe. Performances: Thursday at 9 p.m., Nov. 19 and 20 at 7 p.m.

Something’s Gone Wrong in the Dreamhouse NOLA Candle Factory, 4537 N. Robertson St. Irish humor meets social comment in the work of Scream Blue Murmur, a Belfast troupe that mixes poetry and cabaret theater to examine the rise of Fascism in 1930s Europe. Performances: Thursday at 7 p.m., Nov. 20 at 9 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.

For Kingdom and Fatherland AllWays Theatre, 2240 St. Claude Ave. Billing herself as “Norway’s most famous Muslim comedian,” Shabana Rehman mixes drama and comedy in a one-woman show about family, emigration and the nature of home. Performances: Thursday at 7 p.m., Nov. 20 at 9 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 7 p.m.

MORE SHOWS TO CONSIDER

Here is asampling of other New Orleans Fringe Festival shows. Tickets are $8 unless otherwise noted and available at nofringe.org and, in most cases, at the door. Visit the New Orleans Fringe Festival website for a complete listings of events, with prices, times and locations.

A**holes on the Brink (of Limited Epiphanies) Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., 581.5812. A media parable for our times, written by and starring Timothy Michael Drucker and Melinda Stewart. The play is a response to the 24-hour reality television media circus that has become our culture. Performances Wed at 11 and Nov. 21 at 9. Tickets: $8 at the door or visit CabaretLeChatNoir.com.

All Beepers Go To Heaven Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., 581.5812. Taking aim at smartphones, the Internet, and the other inventions that frighten grandma, the play is a love letter to the shiny gadgets we can’t live without. Performances Thurs-Nov. 20 at 11. Tickets: $8 at the door or visit CabaretLeChatNoir.com.

Bombs, Babes and Bingo Den of Muses, located on Architect Street (known as Architect’s Alley) between Port Street and St. Ferdinand in Faubourg Marigny, 941.3640. Out of Fayetteville, Ark., The Artist’s Laboratory Theatre tells a story about war, the fallibility of memory, the division of family, and a scientist’s quest to make sense of his life and work. Performances Thurs at 7, Nov. 20 at 9 and Nov. 21 at 7. Tickets: $8, plus a $3 (one-time purchase) Fringe button, which gets you access to the festival. Tickets and button can be purchased at nofringe.org or at the festival.

Clementine & Clyde The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, 925 Camp St., 337.515.6479. Two plays by Carolyn Woosley bring to life legendary artists Clementine Hunter and Clyde Connell. Performances Wed at 7; Thurs at 9; Nov. 19 at 7; Nov. 20 at 3 and 7; and Nov. 21 at 3. For more information, go to louisianawomenonstage.com.

Our Man The AllWays Theater, 2240 St. Claude Ave., 603.300.7321. A comedic, multidisciplinary work that explores the intersection of performance and politics in the modern age, through the lenses of 1950s radio broadcasts, and a decidedly fictional approach to American political history. Performances Thurs-Nov. 19 at 9 and Nov. 20 at 7.

Revenge From the Deep Water Den of Muses, Architect Alley in Faubourg Marigny (behind Mardi Gras Zone). A modern circus monster play in which a cast of acrobats, aerialists and actors leads the audience through a story that highlights the importance of community; directed by Alden Eagle. Performances Wed and Nov. 19 at 7; and Nov. 21 at 11.